Senapang lantak ("Muzzleloader") musket ("senapang panjang laras licin") adalah antara senjata kecil pertama yang dibangunkan. Senjata api itu dimuatkan dengan serbuk letupan melalui muncung, tambahan dengan pelapik dan kemudiannya peluru (biasanya bebola plumbum padu, tetapi Musketeers boleh menembak peluru batu apabila mereka kehabisan peluru). Senapang lantak lebih baik (yang biasanya laras berpilin bukannya laras licin) dihasilkan pada hari ini dan mempunyai ramai peminat, ramai daripada mereka memburu haiwan buruan yang besar dan kecil dengan senjata mereka. Senapang lantak perlu diisi semula secara insani selepas setiap tembakan, pemanah yang mahir dapat melepaskan lebih banyak anak panah berbanding kebanyakan penembak senapang lantak awal mampu mengisi dan menembak kembali, sungguhpun menjelang pertengahan abad ke-18, apabila senapang lantak menjadi persenjataan kecil piwaian tentera, serta askar yang dilatih mampu melepaskan enam tembakan seminit dengan menggunakan kartrij tersedia menggunakan musketnya. Sebelum itu, keberkesanan senapang lantak telah terhalang oleh kedua-dua kepantasan mengisi semula dan, sebelum mekanisme menembak telah disempurnakan, risiko yang sangat tinggi yang terdapat pada senjata api kepada orang yang cuba untuk menembak mengunakannya.

Satu penyelesaian yang menarik untuk masalah tambah nilai adalah "Senapang Lilin Rom". Ini adalah senapang lantak dengan banyak caj dan bebola dimuatkan salah satu di atas yang lain, dengan lubang kecil dalam setiap bola untuk membenarkan caj berikut dinyalakan selepas yang di hadapannya telah dinyalakan. Ia adalah bukan senjata api yang boleh diharapkan dan tidak popular, tetapi ia membolehkan satu bentuk tembakan "automatik" lama sebelum kewujudan mesingan.[8]

Senapang batu Matchlock

Matchlocks were the first and simplest small arms firing mechanisms developed. Using the matchlock mechanism, the powder in the gun barrel was ignited by a piece of burning cord called a "match". The match was wedged into one end of an S-shaped piece of steel. As the trigger (often actually a lever) was pulled, the match was brought into the open end of a "touch hole" at the base of the gun barrel, which contained a very small quantity of gunpowder, igniting the main charge of gunpowder in the gun barrel. The match usually had to be relit after each firing.

Wheellock

The wheellock action, a successor to the matchlock, predated the flintlock. Despite its many faults, the wheellock was a significant improvement over the matchlock in terms of both convenience and safety, since it eliminated the need to keep a smoldering match in proximity to loose gunpowder. It operated using a small wheel much like that on cigarette lighters which was wound up with a key before use and which, when the trigger was pulled, spun against a flint, creating the shower of sparks that ignited the powder in the touch hole. Supposedly invented by Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance man, the wheel lock action was an innovation that was not widely adopted.

Flintlock

The flintlock action was a major innovation in small arms design. The spark used to ignite the gunpowder in the touch hole was supplied by a sharpened piece of flint clamped in the jaws of a "cock" which, when released by the trigger, struck a piece of steel called the "frizzen" to create the necessary sparks. (The spring loaded arm that holds a piece of flint or pyrite is referred to as a cock because of its resemblance to a rooster.) The cock had to be manually reset after each firing, and the flint had to be replaced periodically due to wear from striking the frizzen. (See also flintlock mechanism, snaphance, miquelet) The flintlock was widely used during the 18th and 19th centuries in both muskets and rifles.

Percussion cap

Percussion caps (caplock mechanisms), coming into wide service in the 19th century, were a dramatic improvement over flintlocks. With the percussion cap mechanism, the small primer charge of gunpowder used in all preceding small arms was replaced by a completely self-contained explosive charge contained in a small brass "cap". The cap was fastened to the touch hole of the gun (extended to form a "nipple") and ignited by the impact of the gun's "hammer". (The hammer is roughly the same as the cock found on flintlocks except that it doesn't clamp onto anything.) In the case of percussion caps the hammer was hollow on the end to fit around the cap in order to keep the cap from fragmenting and injuring the shooter. Once struck, the flame from the cap in turn ignited the main charge of gunpowder, as with the flintlock, but there was no longer any need to charge the touch hole with gunpowder, and even better, the touch hole was no longer exposed to the elements. As a result, the percussion cap mechanism was considerably safer, far more weatherproof, and vastly more reliable (cloth-bound cartridges containing a premeasured charge of gunpowder and a ball had been in regular military service for many years, but the exposed gunpowder in the entry to the touch hole had long been a source of misfires). All muzzleloaders manufactured since the second half of the 19th century use percussion caps except those built as replicas of the flintlock or earlier small arms.

Katrij

Salah satu ciptaan utama bagi senjata ringan (dan artileri ringan) wujud pada separuh abad ke-19 berikut apabila amunasi, sebelumnya dihantar sebagai peluru dan serbuk bedil berasingan, digabung dalam katrij logam tunggal (hampir selalunya tembaga) yang mengandungi tutup peledak ("percussion cap"), ubat bedil, dan peluru dalam paket kalis cuaca. Kelebihan teknikal utama bagi katrij tembaga adalah keberkesanan dan kedapan yang boleh diharapkan tekanan gas tinggi pada at the breech, kerana tekanan gas memaksa kelongsong katrij mengembang keluar, menekan ia kedap terhadap dalam kebuk meriam. Ini menghalang sebarang kebocoran gas panas yang boleh mencederakan penembak. The brass cartridge also opened the way for modern repeating arms, by uniting the bullet, gunpowder and primer into one assembly. Before this, a "cartridge" was simply a premeasured quantity of gunpowder together with a ball in a small cloth bag (or rolled paper cylinder), which also acted as wadding for the charge and ball. This early form of cartridge had to be rammed into the muzzleloader's barrel, and either a small charge of gunpowder in the touch hole or an external percussion cap mounted on the touch hole ignited the gunpowder in the cartridge. Cartridges with built-in percussion caps (called "primers") continue to this day to be the standard in firearms. In cartridge-firing firearms, a hammer (or a firing pin struck by the hammer) strikes the cartridge primer, which then ignites the gunpowder within. The primer charge is at the base of the cartridge, either within the rim (a "rimfire" cartridge) or in a small percussion cap embedded in the center of the base (a "centerfire" cartridge). As a rule, centerfire cartridges are more powerful than rimfire cartridges, operating at considerably higher pressures than rimfire cartridges.

Caseless cartridges are now being explored: instead of using brass as the cartridge case, these would hold the cartridge together with paper or some other substance that is destroyed when the gun is fired, eliminating the expense of brass casings which are ejected. Caseless cartridges and the guns that would use them are still prototypes, although the idea of caseless cartridges can be traced to the musket "cartridges" widely used by the 18th century military.

Nearly all contemporary firearms load cartridges directly into their breech. Some additionally or exclusively load from a magazine that holds multiple cartridges. A magazine is usually a box or cylinder that is designed to be reusable and is detachable from the gun. Some magazines, such as those of the Garand are internal to the firearm, and are loaded by using a clip, which is a device that looks like a rail holding the ammunition by the rim of the case. In most cases, a magazine and a clip are different in that the former's function is to feed ammunition into the firearm's breech, while the latter's is only to "charge" a magazine with fresh ammunition.